1917-18.] BOTANICAL .SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 261 



In the preceding pages I have made reference frequently 

 to G. ornata, WalL, and have pointed out that three of the 

 late-flowering species of which I furnish descriptions have 

 been confused with it and received its name. It may be 

 well, therefore, if I say something here about what G. ornata, 

 Wall., really is and what it is not, and endeavour to clear 

 up the confusion that attaches to the name. 



G. ornata, Wall., is a plant obtained by Wallich from 

 Gossain Than in Nepal in the years 1820-21. It appears 

 in his Catalogue under No. 4386. Specimens of the Gossain 

 Than plant are preserved in several public herbaria, of 

 which Edinburgh is one, and the Wallichian specimens 

 which we have are those upon which I rely for my know- 

 ledge of what G. ornata. Wall., is. 



Wallich's plant was first fully described under the genus 

 Gentiana by Grisebach ^ in 1839 and again in 1845.^ 



Previously, in 1838,^ George Don had given a description 

 of it as Fneumonantlie ornata. George Don does not 

 refer to it as a garden plant, and we may assume that it 

 was not in cultivation at the time of his writing. 



In 1880 a plant was figured in the Botanical Magazine, 

 t. 6514, under the name G. ornata, Wall. This plant came 

 from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. I have found 

 no record of whence Edinburgh obtained it, but I am dis- 

 posed to think that it was raised from seeds distributed 

 from Calcutta. It was soon recognised that this plant was 



1 Grisebach, Geu. et Sp. Gentianearum (1839), 277. The following 

 is Grisebach's description : — 



Gentiana ornata, Wall. — Radix dense fasciculata, quasi nidum re- 

 ferens, epidermide versus apicem incrassata patula radicenique sacculi 

 instar cingente. Caules plurimi 3-4-unciales, plerique fertiles, foliosi, 

 declinati 1 adscendentes. Folia 8 longa, 1 lata, suprema longiora, 

 cetera aequalia internodia aequantia, vagina apice ampliata. Calycis 

 tubus patulus lobos aequans ; lobi acuminati membrana intracalycina 

 truncata prominula distantes. Corolla calyce duplo major, coerulea 

 longitudinaliter striata ; lobiacutissimi, mucronati, tubo 4plo breviores, 

 plica obtusa duplo majores. Capsula oblongo-linearis, utrinque attenuata, 

 corollam aequans. Semina oblonga, convexa, processibus scariosis 

 asperrima, utrinque obtusa, nee alata. 



Proxima inter nostrates G. frigida, Hk., a qua differet caulibus 

 caespitosis, calyce, foliis summis majoribus, omnibus brevioribus, 

 vagina foliari ampliata, flore solitario sessili etc. Cf. ad calcem 

 generis G. Kurroo. 



Gossain Than, Himalayah. 



2 In DC, Prod, ix (1845), 110. 



3 George Don, Gard. Diet., iv (1838), 194. 



